Daily Filter: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition, MLB 12: The Show
Cradle trailer shows off Russian indie adventure game
WoW Monopoly, StarCraft RISK announced at Toy Fair
Jersey Shore's 'The Situation' signs App deal
Blacklight: Retribution open beta begins Feb 27
Study: American Used Game Market 49 Million Strong
by Nick Breckon, Apr 09, 2008 9:55am PDTA study commissioned by organizers at the MI6 game marketing conference has found that of the 75 million people who buy games in the United States, some 49 million also purchase used games.
The study, performed by consultancy firm OTX and reported on by Gamasutra, showed that only 28% of gamers exclusively buy new games, with 60% buying both new and used.
OTX also found that of the 26 million who sell games, 16 million are what they call "New Game Gluttons." These "gluttons" are gamers who finish their games as quickly as possible, with the goal of selling a title at its highest possible value in order to better fund new game purchases.
The firm has projected an increase in used games sales due to the ailing economy, with one in four gamers polled reporting that they will purchase a used game for the first time in the next 12 months.
GameStop is by far the most popular used game hub, pulling in two out of three of every used game purchase. Many analysts have pointed to GameStop's hold on the used game market as an indicator of its resiliency in the face of a US economic recession.
Comments
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 3 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 8 replies.
I'm kind of confused why anyone would do this. Why not rent the game instead? Personally I buy my games and keep them, because either A) it takes me ages to finish them or B) I'll usually play them more than once. However if I only played games once and never expected to do so again - why not just stick with rentals?
Also now that I have a job which doesn't pay minimum wage (hell even if it DID) I don't feel the need to buy games used anymore. I prefer my game to be scratch-free and pristine, and I also get the satisfaction of supporting the developer.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 14 replies.
i understand the argument of supporting the developers, but at the end of the day, my first concern is my family and paying bills, i'm not going to tell them to eat cereal for breakfast lunch and dinner just so i can 'support the developer'. so i go to ebay/amazon and buy used games for half price or less.
simple as that.
if you want to lower your losses to the used game market, lower your retail prices. if you can't do that, or don't want to, then "tough titty".
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 3 replies.
I think the popularity of buying older titles at a cheaper price over Steam shows how consumers don't mind buying games new, so long as it's not at the full $50 price.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 9 replies.
Why would I want to pay full price for something I can get on half.com or amazon.com marketplace for cheaper than retail? That makes no sense.